Anyone have exp w/ Solar Chargers

[ManInAShed]

Anyone have any experience with a solar charger to charge your GPS?

Heading out on a three week snowshoeing expedition thru Nunavut.

It shouldn't be necessary, but in the event we need to dig out & fire up the GPS, the batteries will almost certainly be dead after a couple weeks at -50 deg.

Solio Mag seems to be the top of the line model, but for every positive review I can find, there seems to also be a terrible one. Hm.

Thx,
P

 

[bluefirepictures]

Dont batteries and electrical stuff in general do better in the cold? I thought heat was the enemy of electrical stuff.

 

[YvettesSherpa]

Cold kills batteries real quick

 

[Rumpled]

Sounds to me that for that kind of adventure, I'd want the GPS on all the time just to track where we went. Remember, you'll probably have very liitle sun up there. You'll have to account for that.
Sorry, no experience on solar chargers. That one seems somewhat inefficient. It charges itself and then the device. Most GPS use AA's and not sure if if it can be charged externally or if you need to charge the batteries seperately.

 

[EMrider]

Check out power film solar chargers. Great products and very light/easy to use.
R

 

[Pickettt]

It's been my experience in temperatures like that to run an external battery pack under your clothing, next to your body. Then, of course, run a cable out of your sleeve, or pit zip, or whatever, to your equipment. It works well for lights and radios, I don't see that gps would work any different.

 

[Rondo]

I haven't had much luck with the Solio chargers. Just not enough surface area to be that effective. The Goal 0 ones though have been pretty promising. http://www.goal0.com/

I had the Solio with me in Kuwait and the iphone drew more power running GPS than the Solio could provide. This was in full sun (Kuwait) in July. Should have been turbocharged.

 

[92se-r]

the trick is to get the solar chargers with a built in lithium battery. the solar chargers are only there to charge this lithium pack. the lithium pack charges or runs your devices. so you precharge the lithium pack before your trip, and use it when you need it, with the solar charger trickle charging the lithium pack while ur not using your gps.

 

[evdog]

A friend of mine tried using a solar charger on a road trip - not sure what brand. He found it didn't work well because it was hard to rest the thing at a proper angle to capture light effectively. It really needed to sit for a while, propped up at a given angle. I think you will have problems with the cold ruining batteries, and you will have near 24 hour dark up there at this time of year. Your best bet may be to carry a number of batteries in a neck pouch under your clothing so they stay warm - only put them in the gps when you need to turn it on. Good luck!

 

[whybother]

I had the Solio with me in Kuwait and the iphone drew more power running GPS than the Solio could provide. This was in full sun (Kuwait) in July. Should have been turbocharged.

i purchased a solio and it was crap. just my experience though.

 

[ManInAShed]

Thanks everybody, looks like Powerfilm & Goal0 make what I'm looking for. Now to decide...

 

[bikerider]

Will there be enough sun up there to justify carrying it? Can't be more than a 4-5 hours a day right?

 

[bing!]

Batteries don't die in the cold. They just don't generate enough electricity due to the chemicals bot being able to make a reaction. Bring alkaline spares, some heating packs and an insulated bag to heat up your electronics for use. Keeping the gadget inside your jacket will heat it up after a while. Alkalines freeze at -20. Better yet, buy the disposable lithiums, which freeze around -50 and are better suited for freezing winters. They will still need to be warmed up though.

The solar charger is a good idea, but you will need to have it set up for a good amount of time to get a full charge. And even with a full charge, the battery may not produce good current unless warmed.

 

[ManInAShed]

Should be about 5-6 hours of daylight by now. It's not a lot. Enough in an emergency? Probably better than smoke signals.

Was thinking of rigging up a tiny electric motor to a radiant fan to run off the campfire heat every night, but, not enough time this trip. Maybe I'll fiddle with that for next year.

 

[Abui]

Doesn't seem practical at that latitude in the winter, 5+/- hours of sun on the horizon each day barring clouds. Just keep the batteries and GPS against the body.

 

[DirtymikeTDB]

Heat and cold are both enemies of electricity.

Heat allows them to burn up, cold just slows the chemical reaction. Warm your batteries to around 70 degres for best operation...............Put them in your pockets, inside your jacket ETC..... just remember to put them there in time to be ready for use.

 

[EMrider]

The 1.5w power film works great for cell phones and other small items. It is also reasonably priced.

R

 

[EMrider]

Dp

 

[Abui]

How do you plan to use the GPS? As a direction finder to pre-loaded waypoints, retrace your steps, an electronic compass, or trust its map?

 

[ManInAShed]

At the moment, all the southern lakes flash froze and were hit with about 6 feet of the wet granulated snow, which aside from being heavy & everything that comes with that, is also insulating them against freezing properly further, so, gotta stay off the water thru at least Ontario, which means all new routes. & since there are no roads north of Ontario, I'm gonna be extrapolating vantage points from memory. It's a whole different world in the winter up there, & everything takes 3x as long... chaos. So if I get too waylaid and don't make the rendezvous on day one of the window, I'll take a duff day or so, rest up, power up the GPS and find a more direct route in.